Conjunction, the seeing of things in relationship to their surroundings, is what we’ve been looking at over the past fortnight. Another aspect of seeing and understanding the world around us. Bright things look brighter next to dull things as in this photo of a matt brown raft spider and its web covered in dew, and vice versa. It is something to be on the lookout for in our contemplations, in our ponderings, in our photography. When something stands out to us, we might be clearer on exactly why that is. And of course, as always, this can be highly personal. What you notice, what jumps out at you rather than me, may be doing that because it strikes a thought or memory that is particularly strong. Sometimes the juxtaposition is not right in front of us, but between our inner life and the outer world. Next we will be looking at how humour influences our seeing.

Light and its absence create a powerful striping across any subject. How different we look and sometimes feel in the brightness, as opposed to the dark. We long, don’t we, for the cool of shade when we are hot or blinded by the sun, and conversely, for the warmth and comfort of the sunlight, during dull grey days.